Three Tuesdays: September 12, 19, and 26 from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. ET Online
Close Reading with Lively Discussion
Bring your detective skills to a deep dive into Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Does this famous series mirror biographical details in Shakespeare’s life or are they exercises written when the plague closed London theaters that probe within a fixed form the nature of love, loss, betrayal and time? Or do both considerations apply? Does it matter? Whether or not we come to a conclusion or agreement, these 154 poems are considered the greatest single work of poetry in English and will be well worth our consideration. We’ll look at sonnet forms and how they influence the content, the social configurations of Shakespeare’s era, and how sonnets are a reflection of the individual mind in action. And what a mind is Shakespeare’s!
Three Tuesdays: September 12, 19, and 26 from 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. ET Online
Required Reading:
Shakespeare’s Sonnets and Poems, edited by Mowat & Werstine (9780743273282)
Gigi Bradford is the founder of the Folger Shakespeare Library Poetry Board and former Literature Director of the National Endowment for the Arts. She has been teaching at Politics and Prose since 2006.
REFUND POLICY: Please note that we can issue class refunds up until seven (7) days before the first class session.
